When Fender first released the Road Worn bass line, I was both puzzled and fascinated with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had always considered relic basses to be Custom Shop instruments, \nbuilt by master craftsmen with a high attention to every detail, not \nstock production models that anyone can pull off the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course it was inevitable that one day relic guitars and basses \nwould be mass produced, given their huge surge in popularity over the \nlast few years. The question is…are the Road Worn basses any good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Fender makes two Road Worn Bass models, the 50’s Precision Bass which\n closely resembles a 1957 Fender P-Bass and the 60’s Jazz Bass which \nlooks like a 1962-64 Fender Jazz. Color options for both basses are \nsunburst (2-tone for the P-Bass, 3-tone for the Jazz) and Fiesta Red. \nThe Road Worn series are made in Fender’s Ensenada Factory in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bodies are finished in nitrocellulose lacquer and the necks have a\n pre-worn polyurethane coat. The necks feature the vintage 7.25″ radius \nand are C shaped, which I like a lot. The P-Bass has the one piece maple\n board and the Jazz has the slab rosewood board. The P-Bass sports the \nclassic gold anodized pickguard and the Jazz features the vintage \ntortoise shell guard. Both basses come with standard vintage pickups, \nvintage bridges and those very cool, long stem reverse tuners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve owned an American Vintage ’57 reissue Precision and the Fender \nRoad Worn ’50s Precision Bass sounds very similar, with a deep growl and\n a nice mid-range bark that really cuts through a mix. The highs were \nmellow and creamy, just like a vintage P-Bass should sound. The split \ncoil pickup did not have the period correct raised A-pole piece like the\n ’57 AV RI, which I didn’t mind as I prefer the flush poles anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bass I played was very light, I would guess around 8.5 lbs at \nmost, and from what I’ve heard this is a pretty common for most Road \nWorn basses. The lightweight body and thin finish seemed to accentuate \nthe resonance and the notes really blossomed, especially in the middle \nof the neck. The bass had lots of punch and was real fun to play, I \ndidn’t want to put it down. I especially liked the wide 1 3\/4″ nut and \nflat C-shaped neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sanded down neck felt real comfortable, not unlike many vintage \nFenders I’ve played before. The relic finish looked pretty good from a \nfew feet away but up close it did lack the realistic distressing I’ve \nseen on many Custom Shop basses. Another thing I noticed is that all the\n Road Worn Basses have the same basic relic pattern on them. It would be\n nice to see some variations in the relic treatment throughout the line,\n maybe a light, medium and heavy relic choice, but I guess you can only \nexpect so much from a production bass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The build quality was excellent on this bass. It felt very much like a\n U.S. Vintage series bass and everything was real solid and well put \ntogether. Overall I was very impressed with this bass, I’ve played a few\n real vintage Precisions over the years and the Road Worn P-Bass comes \npretty close to nailing that feel and vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Fender Road Worn ’60s Jazz Bass has that similar broken in feel \nof the P-Bass. The thin neck (1 1\/2″ at the nut) is fast but has a \nlittle more meat on it than the ’62 American Vintage Reissue Jazz and I \nlike that. The pickups have that classic focused, sweet tone that has \nmade the Jazz one of the most beloved instruments of all time. The lows \nare full and tight and the highs sing beautifully, a great sounding \nJ-Bass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like all Jazz Basses with single coil pickups they are subseptiable \nto hum when both volumes are not all the way up. I personally prefer the\n neck pickup only sound, which produces that distinct deep, woody bark. \nBut the combination of the two pickups can cover a lot of ground. With \nboth turned on full the tone was rich and smooth, just like a vintage \nJazz should sound. This Bass can handle pretty much any musical \nsituation, and sound great doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The relic pattern is very similar to the Precision as are all the \nRoad Worn Basses, and although it might be nick-picky I wasn’t that \nimpressed with the tortoise shell pickguard…the pattern looked flat \nand too swirly compared to the deep and rich real vintage tort. guards. \nThe Bass was pretty light, just slightly heavier than the P-Bass and was\n real comfortable on my lap. The overall quality was excellent and the \nbass was as solid and well made as any American made Jazz I’ve played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Fender first released the Road Worn bass line, I was both puzzled and fascinated with them. I had always considered relic basses to be Custom Shop instruments, built by master craftsmen with a high attention to every detail, not stock production models that anyone can pull off the wall. Of course it was inevitable … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassguitarshack.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}